Billiard table

ABSTRACT

The invention presented here involves a billiard game table having detachable and interchangeable bumpers that consists of a horizontal rectangular frame, carried by an underframe, on the inside of which a plate is mounted that is covered with a cloth, the vertical inner side or edge of the frame elements, lengthwise and widthwise, being designed to accomodate a set of elastic bumpers.  
     The game table according to the invention is characterized in that each elastic bumper is mounted by gluing onto a bumper carrier profile having dimensions fitted to the corresponding element of the frame, and in that the profile is held under pressure against the inside edge of the frame by several internal clamps on the frame and on the profile, these clamps having an action that can be controlled perpendicularly to the axle of the frame and of the bumper carrier profile.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

[0001] 1. Field of the Invention

[0002] The invention presented here involves a billiard game table.

[0003] 2. Description of Related Art

[0004] Billiard game tables are made of a horizontal rectangular frame, carried by an underframe, on the inside of which a plate is mounted that is made of slate, marble, or another material and covered with a cloth.

[0005] The inner lip or edge of the struts of the frame, along the length or width, accomodates a set of elastic bumpers.

[0006] Generally, the bumpers are attached to the frame by gluing.

[0007] The profile of the bumpers is determined by the type of billiards.

[0008] A recent development is aimed at, using the same table, obtaining different types of billiard games by replacing the bumpers.

[0009] French billiards has continuous bumpers over the entire length of the frame elements.

[0010] American billiards or English billiards have holes for the balls to go out at the four corners and at the center of their longest sides.

[0011] In this case, the bumpers are cut into several sections.

[0012] In this type of convertible billiards, it has been proposed to affix the elastic bumpers to a support profile and to screw it on through the frame.

[0013] The French patent no. 92.07320/2.292.160 describes a system of a threaded joint in which the screws cross through the frame horizontally from the external lip to the internal lip, their heads on the external lip being masked by a detachable cover.

[0014] The threaded part of each screw is accommodated in a threaded bottom bush clamped in a drill bole of a bumper carrier profile.

[0015] This system is complex and is not fully satisfactory:

[0016] The attachment of the external detachable cover can eventually become imperfect which harms the aesthetic,

[0017] If the threads of the bushes inside the bumper carrier profile or the threads of the screw become damaged, it is necessary to intervene at the level of the bumper carrier profile or replace it.

[0018] The system for attaching the bumpers using known screws also has the disadvantage of not allowing a backlash elimination when this is done and performing a clamping that can be irregular from one screw to the other.

[0019] The patent GB 2.068.073 shows a billiard table with a system of detachable bumpers. The elastic bumpers are glued onto a longitudinal bumper carrier made of wood. The bumper carrier has a recess in a longitudinal T-shape, over the entire length of the bumper carrier.

[0020] The vertical part of the T-shape opens by a central horizontal part at the internal lip of the bumper carrier.

[0021] In the vertical part of the T-shape, a clamping head with a threaded cylinder is placed on the inside, which is accommodated in the horizontal part of the T-shape.

[0022] A horizontal screw crosses the frame and screws into the threaded cylinder of the head.

[0023] The patent GB 1,574,859 describes an identical system.

[0024] The disadvantage of these systems is that it is essential in order to affix the bumper carriers that the heads, in the groove that has a T-shape, which is made over the entire length of the bumper carrier, are placed exactly opposite the screw, or else the mounting is impossible.

BRIEF SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

[0025] The present invention intends to avoid the disadvantages above while making a game table having detachable and interchangeable bumpers whose mounting is, at the same time, perfectly easy to do, reliable and precise in time regardless of the number of assemblies and disassemblies made, and which is perfectly aesthetic, the system not being visible from the outside.

[0026] For this purpose, the billiard table according to the invention consists of a rectangular frame with a peripheral skirt below, carried by an underframe, on the inside of which a plate is mounted, the inner side or edge of the struts, lengthwise and widthwise of the frame, receiving a set of detachable and interchangeable elastic bumpers, each of them being glued to a bumper carrier profile, characterized essentially in that each bumper carrier profile is held under pressure by many clamps, each of them consisting of a horizontal axle housed in a transverse blind hole on the frame and opening onto its inner lip, the axes being equipped at their free end outside of the frame, above the plate, with a head that is housed in a recess in the depth of the bumper carrier profile and at their inside end on the frame by an instrument exerting an axial traction on the horizontal axle, a traction reflected on the bumper carrier profile by the head, where the instrument is accessible and maneuverable by screwing down or unscrewing from below the frame.

[0027] According to another characteristic of the invention, the instrument exerting a traction on the horizontal axle of the clamp is a piece orthogonal to the axle and mobile from above to below and from below to above, whose upper projecting conical part penetrates into a hollow conical volume of the axle, this volume being orthogonal to the axle.

[0028] According to yet another characteristic of the invention, the horizontal axle is mounted sliding in a transverse hole of a bush orthogonal to the axle, where this bush has a threading complementary to a threading of the piece that is mobile from above to below.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE SEVERAL VIEWS OF THE DRAWINGS

[0029] Other advantages and characteristics of the invention appear from reading the following description of an embodiment form given as a non-restrictive example and illustrated by the attached drawings in which:

[0030]FIG. 1 shows a schematic view from above of the frame 1 of the game table, the bumpers 2 in a configuration of French billiards and the plate 3.

[0031]FIG. 2 is a section view of the frame with the system according to the invention.

[0032]FIG. 3 is a view of the head to be mounted to the bumper carrier profile.

[0033]FIG. 4 is an exploded view of the instruments of one of the clamps according to an embodiment form.

[0034]FIG. 5 is another section view of the frame with the clamp system according to FIG. 4.

[0035]FIG. 6 is a view from below of one part of the bumper carrier profile with the representation of one of the recesses receiving the head of one of the clamps.

[0036]FIGS. 7, 8, and 9 show the positioning of the bumper carrier on the device from the bottom of the head by acting together with the recesses 12 and windows 14.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0037] The implantation of the clamps 4 is shown schematically.

[0038] In the embodiment example, twenty-four clamps hold the bumpers of which there are eighteen (nine times struts) for the bumpers corresponding to the longitudinal struts of the frame and eight (four times struts) inside the frame for the bumpers corresponding to the struts of the width of the frame.

[0039] The frame is made of pieces of wood having a horizontal rectangular cross-section and resting on an underframe (not shown) in FIG. 2.

[0040] On the outside lip 5 of each piece or strut, lengthwise and widthwise, of the frame, a vertical skirt 6 is mounted.

[0041] The mounting of the clamp 4 is shown in FIG. 2.

[0042] As shown in FIG. 2, for one clamp, the frame is equipped with horizontal blind holes 7 opening on the lip or inner edge 8 of the frame.

[0043] In each of the blind holes 7, an axle 9 is introduced, the one free end 10 of which is outside of the inner lip 8 of the frame and receives a head 11 that is accommodated in a recess 12 in the depth of the bumper carrier profile 13.

[0044] For this purpose, as shown in FIG. 3, the recesses 12 of the bumper carrier profile are equipped with vertical windows 14 for the passage of the axle, the head 11 being kept in the recess 12.

[0045] The recesses 12 are made vertically in the bumper carrier profile 13; they open at the base of the profile, at the level of the contact of the profile with the slate 3.

[0046] The recesses are equipped with a vertical window 14 opening onto the rear side of the bumper carrier profile, i.e. on the side which comes into contact and under pressure, as described in the following, against the inner edge 8 of the strut of the frame.

[0047] The recesses 12 and windows 14 are spaced regularly on each bumper carrier profile. There are as much of them as there are clamps.

[0048] The position of the clamps, the recesses and the vertical windows is symmetric on the frame for the clamps, and on the bumper carrier for the recesses and windows, in a manner so that one clamp with its head 11 corresponds exactly in position to a recess in which the head 11 and a window 14 for the passage of an axle 10 that carries the head are housed.

[0049] This allows an easier mounting as shown in FIGS. 7, 8, 9, given as an example, for a position of the frame with a clamp and a head, and a position of the bumper carrier with a recess and a window; this makes it possible to make the bumpers and the bumper carriers detachable and interchangeable.

[0050] The heads 11 projecting over the inner edge 8 of the frame at the end of their axle 10, the bumper carrier is slipped onto the heads by its windows 14 and recesses 12, from above to below.

[0051] The bumper carrier profiles are equipped with as many recesses and windows as they receive from the clamps.

[0052] Near the inner end of the axle, a blind hole 15 orthogonal to the blind hole 7 and opening under the frame makes it possible to arrange an instrument that exerts a traction on the axle 9 towards the inside and by the intermediary of the head 11 on the bumper carrier profile which is pinned and jammed against the inner lip 8 of the frame.

[0053] The axial displacement of the piece 9 can be obtained by any type of instrument for control that can be activated from the below the frame.

[0054] Advantageously, a usage is made of the mobile instrument from the bottom to the top and vice-versa, in a manner so that the traction exerted on the axle 9 is never irreversible, according to one embodiment form, this instrument is made up of a bush 16 arranged in the blind hole 15.

[0055] The bush 16 is equipped with an axial hole 17 orthogonal to the threaded axle 9 and with a transverse hole 12 having a cross-section corresponding to that of the axle 9.

[0056] As shown notably from the exploded view in FIG. 4, the axle 9 has a hexagonal cross-section.

[0057] The transverse drill hole 18 of the bush 16 has a cross-section that is also hexagonal in order to block the axle 9 in rotation in the bush 16.

[0058] The axle 9 has on one of its sides a hollow conical housing 19 in which an upper conical part 20 of a shaft 21 with a threading is housed and screws into the bush 16 that is also threaded. The axle 9 is introduced into the bush 16 by its hole 18, its hollow conical housing 19 being placed opposite the shaft 21.

[0059] Advantageously, the section of the shaft 21 is hexagonal in order to allow it to be maneuvered by a key.

[0060] Preferably, the length of the shaft 21 is equal to or less than that of the skirt 6 which conceals it.

[0061] It goes without saying that the control system which exerts a traction by displacement of the axle 9 can be replaced by any other suitable device.

[0062] The axle 9 has one end 22 opening from the lip 8 of the frame and penetrating into the recess 12 of the bumper carrier profile 13 which has a cylindrical position contraction with a distal threading.

[0063] On this contracted portion 22, a sliding centering collar 23 is mounted.

[0064] Preferably, the collar 23 has a hexagonal cross-section which makes it possible to position it by forcing it into the horizontal blind hole 7 without breaking the wood.

[0065] On the threaded end of the cylindrical portion 22 of the axle, the head 11 is mounted. The head 11 has the shape of a disk whose thickness allows it to be housed in the recess 12 of the bumper carrier profile which is provided in its center with a threaded hole 24 in which the threaded end of the portion 22 of the axle is housed.

[0066] According to a characteristic of the invention, the distal threaded part of the portion 22 has a cross-section that is less than the portion 22 so as to form a collar 25.

[0067] On one of the sides of the head 11, the hole 24 is equipped with a countersinking 26 having a cross-section that is slightly greater than that of the portion 22 in a manner so that the non-threaded part of it penetrates into the head 11 until stopping against the collar 25 and the countersinking 26.

[0068] This position makes it possible, in presenting one side or the other side of the head 11, to fit to the threading made and if necessary, to eliminate any backlash. 

I claim:
 1. Billiard table having detachable and interchangeable bumpers, consisting of a rectangular frame (1) with a skirt (6) below, carried by an underframe, on the inside of which a plate (3) covered by a cloth is mounted, the vertical inner side or edge (8) of the struts, lengthwise and widthwise of the frame, receiving a set of elastic bumpers (2), each of them being glued to a bumper carrier profile (13) having a fitted dimension affixed to the inner edge of the frame, characterized essentially in that each bumper carrier profile (13) is held under pressure by many clamps whose respective axes (9) are housed in blind holes on the frame and opening onto its inner lip, the axes having a free end outside of the frame equipped with a head (11) that is housed in a recess (12) in the depth of the bumper carrier profile (13) equipped with a vertical window (14) for the passage of the axle, and by their inside end on the frame with an instrument, they exert an axial traction on the bumper carrier profile by the intermediary of the head.
 2. Billiard table according to claim 1, characterized in that each clamp consists of a horizontal shaft (9) that is axially mobile in a transverse hole (7) in the frame element, the hole opening on the edge (8) inside the frame, the shaft being equipped beyond the hole with a head (11) which is housed in an axial cutting of the bumper carrier profile with a window for the passage of the shaft, where the shaft (9) is activated by traction towards the inside in order to pin the profile and the bumper against the frame element or in the opposite direction in order to free the profile.
 3. Game table according to claim 1 and claim 2, characterized in that the head (11) is made up of a piece equipped with a tapped hole (24) affixed to the shaft by a threaded portion of it with a collar (25).
 4. Game table according to claim 3, characterized in that the threaded hole (24) of the piece that forms the head is equipped on one of its sides with a peripheral countersinking (26) having a diameter that is equal to or greater than that of the end of the shaft.
 5. Game table according to claim 1 and any one of the preceding claims, characterized in that the horizontal shaft (9) is equipped with a hollow conical housing (19), that the shaft (9) is screwed into a transverse hole (18) of a bush (16) equipped with a threaded axial hole (17) and that a threaded shaft (21) at the conical end (20) penetrates into the threaded hole (17), its conical end coming into the conical housing (19) of the shaft (9).
 6. Game table according to claim 5, characterized in that the shaft (9) has a hexagonal section with a cylindrical end contraction equipped with a threading (25) for locking the head (11), the end contraction receiving a conical collar (23).
 7. Game table according to claim 5 and claim 6, characterized in that the bush (16) has a transverse hole having a cross-section corresponding to that of the axle (9) in order to lock the axle (9) in rotation. 